The Truth
by Marin9
Summary: The war has ended and, on the brink of hell, Zell and Seifer are having words on the last fine day.  They've had words before, only these are different.  This is a story of brotherhood and something else.
1. Clear

The Truth

The lot was quite spacious, even by yesterday's standards before overcrowding and urbanization had set in. A convertible, once red and engine long dead and sold, fenders rusted, occupied an overgrown north-most corner. Further to the side stood a rickety shed, well on its last strength. A pond, merging into a lake further north, somewhere beyond the property line, flanked the grassy back. The front was a dusty mess: a rusty patio table, two similar chairs, and a house, not much larger than the shed. All stood at odd angles and with no apparent logic to their placement with the exception of the furniture remaining in a cluster and the house solitary. The sideboards of the house were pale blue and had weathered the years well and it had been many long years since this particular home, this property, have been of use as a dwelling to more than vermin and the passing backpacker. Its roof had wistood more winters than expected and still stood strong against the elements. Out front lay an ill-traveled highway, only traversed by the occasional adrenaline junkie or tourist.

It was in this peaceful setting that two men, young and virile, sat behind the patio table, a jug of instant lemonade and too many memories between them.

"Doesn't that bother you?" asked Zell, examining the bullet holes in the table rim before him. They were never enemies per say, although he was no stranger to feelings of resentment and hostility towards his ex-colleague.

"No, not really."

"What if they hit you?"

"They wouldn't."

"You're so sure."

"I am. I'm always sure," Seifer, ex-Sorceress' Knight, the man who single-handedly first won then lost the latest war, reclined in his lawn chair.

"If you say so. They probably think you'd kill them or something."

"I could."

"They don't understand it was that witch pulling the strings."

"No one made me do anything I didn't want to."

"Yeah, right."

"Grow up, Chicken." Seifer flashed a telling smile and in that moment Zell could see the truth in those few incriminating statements. He was unsure whether he was expected to believe them or not, only that he now did, and wished he did not. His breath caught in his throat as Seifer, in spirit of revelation, toasted him with his empty glass.

Zell had sat through the post-war trials. He had sat through the victim statements and casualty lists so long only a few words could be said about each person. He had sat as charge after charge was read, the death penalty proposed and subsequently taken off the table by a judge who's leniency was as unpopular as the war itself. As prison lists were examined, the facilities found inequitable to house a criminal of this caliber, and options reexamined as the defense presented an array of torture charges while pending trial. And now, looking into the eyes of not a manipulated youth who craved the taste of power but of a calculating man who willingly picked up his blade and stepped into the abattoir, he struggled to come to terms with the truth.

"So, she never had you under control." It was more of a statement than a question, really.

"Maybe for moments. She thought she did. Even hypnotism leaves room for conscious thought, eh?"

"Oh fuck .."

"I killed mercenaries. Children or not, some adults too. Today's snot-nosed shit is tomorrow's soldier. .. She was planning something great, you know," Seifer paused, sadly adding, "But it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"I don't know."

"I do."


	2. Black

The sky was black. It was midday and yet the sky, which should have been a normal blue and if an eclipse was to happen, which it would not, it would be a little dark, was a washed-out shade of black, reminiscent of a black dress shirt that has been put through the wash one too many times. To the residents of all continents this sky was black. These residents, of course, did not know that this was so across the entire world and assumed themselves to be the only unlucky bunch in the universe as a whole. They huddled in their homes, some in the cellars and basements, and some had even prayed. They were angry and scared and then there was no power and the children were crying. It was like this for hours, just this thick, black sky; looming over everything everywhere. There was no rain or even any moisture at first and then, some hours into the time when residents were regaining their courage and getting used to the darkness, the storm started.

At first came rain. Sheets of it, thick as frosted glass. Then came hail. It was small and bead-like but then there were golf balls of it and they beat down on cars and houses and caved in windows and turned puffy tennis-court covers and pool blankets into shredded flags. Then came shocks as the golf balls turned to baseballs and then to volleyballs and the old men, the ones who remembered the real great war, the one that passed decades before the current generation could even be conceived, likened them to crashing shells and ducked for the cover of the tanks they once drove. Of course, now there were no tanks but there were cars and they drove these cars flat against stone walls and ushered their grandchildren and all who could fit underneath. These were few, however. Few people reacted well. Few people were on high ground, as well. Rain poured. The towns were reduced to craters, a moon landscape, gray and brown and wet. What's gray and brown and wet all over? Everything. The answer is everything.

And then it stopped. The moon landscape was frozen now. The survivors dragged themselves from underneath their cars and out of their cellars and basements and for the first time in days they looked around. And then It happened. What It was no one understood and all they knew is that they witnessed this, in various places in various forms: A little girl came out with her dog on a leash. They were a little worse for wear but they stood and breathed and all was good and then It came. The dog teetered on its four healthy legs and then one leg collapsed and then another and then he fell to his side and closed his dog eyes and ceased to breathe. A freshly-spawned gnat in a nearby field crawled out of its crater and mimicked the dog. Some hours passed and the survivors knew this: every animal, creature, bird and fish and insect has perished. While the humans felt nothing every being with a sixth sense, every magical and abnormal and special creature and every animal, whether wild or tame, was now dead.

And the sky was still black. And now, now it was midday again.

The Training Center was a swimming pool. There was no T-Rex. The dormitories were catacombs. The library was a mess of pulp and the little girl that had worked there was now one with that pulp which she had loved and maintained in the days before. The cafeteria was only three walls and a only one table had miraculously remained whole. There were no classrooms. There were no children who were told to hide under their desks and cover their heads and who had remained so for a complete day before the roof had caved in. The smart ones were in the parking garage. They lived. Some of them lived.

This is where Xu was, in the parking garage and by the ventilator with blades that stilled long ago. They led to the outside and it was through them that air flowed. She was wearing her fancy uniform and although at the moment it was caked with mud and not very fancy, she still looked impressive. Next to her was the body of her student. His head had split in two. Next to the body was an almost-body of another student, a girl, who's chest moved rapidly and her breathing was shallow. She would be a body soon, Xu knew, and watched the girl gasp for her last breaths until they slowed and she was no more. Now Xu was by two bodies. Whether these two bodies had friends nearby Xu did not recollect and the light, trickling down from the ventilator shaft, did not penetrate far enough for her to judge. Her manicured fingers clung on to the ventilator cage. Touching it, touching this source of air and light and life, she felt safe.

"Hello," came out of the darkness. It was a ghostly sound.

"Hello .." it repeated, shakily, but louder. It was a man's voice and one that Xu found familiar. She reminded herself that there were bodies next to her and probably more just a few cinderblocks over.

"Hello," the voice came closer. There were footsteps behind it. "Anyone alive? Hello?" Then the voice swore. It coughed and swore.

"Yes," Xu found her own and whispered. "Yes!" she yelled. "I'm alive, I'm alive!" She looked down at herself and thought yes, she was alive.

There were sounds of a person walking, sliding and climbing and of things falling and of dirt and water hitting surfaces and being shifted by no natural force. There were crunches and footsteps. Then there was dust and something burst forth from the darkness and then there was breathing.

The person, the man, now stood before her, illuminated by the little light and close enough to touch. "Xu, Hyne .." said the man and crouched down. Xu could see his knees were bright red beneath the dust and dirt that coated him thoroughly. His face was a mask of this dust and dirt and of sweat and blood. He touched her shoulder.

"Zell," she answered him. "My students are dead."

Having received this message, Zell looked around. He saw the bodies. He had seen—no, he had felt—more bodies earlier on, as he stumbled from the elevator shaft he had spent the days past in. It was full of bodies. At first some breathed, later all were still.

"Everyone is dead," he told her. His throat was dry.

"Everyone is dead," Xu repeated and let go of the ventilator cage.

Outside, the clouds were still there. The rays of sun peaked through them, muted and lost, and the world was that of shadows and dimmed, darkened hues. Zell kicked through the blades of the fan and then through the outside cage, emerging into this world with calloused hands from climbing. Behind him, Xu followed suit, pulling herself up and then along with the last bit of her strength. The landscape was ice and moon craters and twisted metal.

"It's so dark .." she whispered as she saw the sun behind the wall of black clouds. "The moon is so dim .."

Zell looked up. "I think that's the sun .." he replied.

"Hello!" yelled Xu with all her might.

Silence answered her.

"We need to find some Cures," Zell turned to her and gestured to a cut above her eyebrow she did not know was there and then to his own knees.

Xu looked at him as if at a mad man. "The Cures don't work," she replied slowly, in a voice that is normally reserved for children and foreigners. "There are no Cures .. There is no more magic. I tried, don't you think I tried? The GFs don't come, the summons don't come, nothing comes. The Cures don't work."

"The Cures don't work," he parroted her words.

"Yes," she said and flinched as he put his arm around her shoulders. They looked up at the sky and a little rain fell, as if the sky was crying, and in response, they cried too.


	3. Charcoal

There were Others in some time. There were children, some adults, some SeeDs, some known and some strangers, but they were there and were as decrepit-looking as their surroundings. There were no wounded.

"We should head to the mainland," someone said nearby.

"The town, no, the town," someone else spoke up.

"Stay out of towns," someone else added.

And so it went. Zell and Xu stayed together that day, by the craters and the ruins and were mostly silent. The handful of others left when the sun disk behind the wall of clouds dimmed. When darkness was total they were again alone.

"What are you thinking?" asked Xu, sitting down cross-legged on a blanket she had found some hours earlier. Its owner no longer needed it. They were situated in an area that was relatively ice-free and dry.

Zell was silent. He only spoke when Xu nudged his arm. "I'm afraid to know," he said quietly. "I'm afraid .. The cures don't work."

"I know they don't work –" she started but was interrupted.

"No, you don't know shit." There were tears in his voice. "My mother lives in Balamb." He covered his face with his hands, smearing the dust and dirt. His shoulders shook and he made sounds like a small child who no one understood.

Xu had never before seen a man cry in such a manner. She said nothing at first and was even afraid to look up and thus focused her eyes on the darkness directly in front of her feet. But then a thought came to her, and it was a natural thought that should have come to her sooner, she realized, and she conveyed it thus: "Tomorrow we will go down to Balamb and find your mom. She is probably hiding in her basement. Balamb was built well. Maybe they evacuated. They probably evacuated." She said this although in her heart she knew this was not the truth and that no building in Balamb had a basement due to its proximity to the ocean.

"Fuck off," he answered her and frantically wiped at his eyes. He was afraid and he was afraid because he knew. Somewhere in his heart he had always known there was nothing but a crypt awaiting him in Balamb. He would see many crypts in the time to come. They all would. He lowered himself from the cement pillar he was sitting on and down onto Xu's blanket. He did not apologize.

Xu did not know Zell's mother. She did not know how she loved to bake, how well she played cards, or how she would wait in line for hours, weather be damned, when a new martial arts tournament came about to secure a competitors' spot for her son. So naturally, Xu was very offended that her good intentions were rejected and signaled this by turning her back to where she felt Zell would be for the night, rolling on her side, and going to sleep. She could sense him shifting on the blanket behind her back. He said nothing more.

The morning was lighter than the one before it had been. The sky was a violet shade of gray, the kind of shade rich men paint their cars to appear even more rich and in which some computer equipment is made. It was not unpleasant. It felt like normalcy. There was a breeze and it was warm despite the mounts of ice on the ground in places where the hail had been particularly thick. The craters seemed larger and even more moon-like with the new light. But now that felt like normalcy too and no Others elsewhere and not even the couple on the blanket thought much of them.

They had been sleeping back to back, their respective edges of the blanket wrapped around their legs for warmth. It was very much like sleeping in the field during SeeD exercises, except they had no air mattress and no hooch. Zell was the first to open his eyes and awoke Xu by the sudden movement of his rising. She did not mind.

The Garden was now deserted and only the dead kept a steady vigil over its decapitated halls. They did not smell. They were slow to begin the decomposition process. All insects were dead.

"It's nice today," said Xu for the sakes of making conversation. They had cleaned themselves up in what once had been the cafeteria and were currently in the process of gathering baggies of chips and many varieties of child-safe candy bars from a vending machine that had miraculously survived the storm. They gathered two backpacks full. The backpacks came from those who no longer needed them. They were free.

While Zell dug a few cans of pop out of the rubble, Xu emptied out the purses of what girls she came across. At first she would pick up the purses by the straps, with two shaking fingers, and open them likewise. After a while she no longer bothered with the delicacies and plucked them out of stiff hands without a second thought. They were dead and she was alive and she was a woman. She gathered what she needed quickly.

"Hey," started Zell as Xu picked through her findings. "I'm sorry .. About last night, I'm sorry."

"It's alright," she answered but did not look up.

"I'm not usually like that." His tone was indeed apologetic.

"It's alright. It's alright .."

"We can't stay here, we have to go," he was suddenly full of energy and jumped up, kicking an invisible opponent. "We'll go see my friend," he announced with a smile on his face that showed off his teeth. "We'll go, and then .. Then I'll go to Balamb."

Now Xu looked up, her eyes wide. "Your friend ..?" she mumbled. "But .." She did not have the heart to state what he must have surely have known.

"No," he laughed and kicked the air again although his knees had hurt. "I know he's alive."


	4. Crimson

"There are no settlements on this side over, no one lives here, it's abandoned farmland and nature," remarked Xu but followed Zell nonetheless, climbing over rocks and large tufts of turned sod and, of course, ice. They would climb and then they would sink up to their knees in mud. Xu lost one shoe to this mud and resolved to carry the other.

"It's here," answered Zell and then, casually: "Good thing I don't need a weapon, eh?" He looked at her, "My fists can do all the talking if need-be." He was all bravado although he was hungry and his knees were bloody under the mud.

"We may need something still," she answered.

"My pal has his."

"I didn't know you had a –" She stopped herself, thinking better of it, but he understood her meaning and glanced back at her and then straight ahead and she spoke again, "I've never seen you with friends outside of work-related .. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. You said it, good one," he grinned but it was a sad grin, the kind reserved to humor young children at funerals. "I know I'm kinda loud and not that smart, I know I get shit-fucked on missions because I'm a fucking impatient 'tard. I know, I'd like to be friends with guys like Squall or something, but it doesn't really work out like that. We work okay together, but it's not personal. But what can I do? I'm not all that interesting and no one seeks me out. What can I do?"

"Nothing," she agreed. Then she touched his forearm compassionately. "It's hard .. I've seen the Disciplinary Committee harass you –"

"Them?" he appeared surprised for a moment. "Nah, at least .." his voice lowered and he shook his head side to side, recollecting times past. "They're alright. No matter how bad, they're still alright."

There was silence for some time and then Xu, curious and feeling guilty, asked, "Do I know this friend of yours?"

"No, not really," he answered. "But you've met."

This revelation cheered up the former instructor and almost made her forget that she was only wearing one shoe. And when she fell in the mud and it got in her hair, she did not complain or mind it too much.

They progressed slowly. All around them the country rose and fell. Although they only walked for three hours it had seemed like a full day.

By what had once been noon they came to what had once been a decrepit house on a decrepit lot with a car that did not run beside it, a shed and a pond that merged into a lake out-back. In present time it was all that except that two of the house's walls had collapsed and the car was mostly in the pond which, no longer merged, had become a large lake the color and consistency of spoilt chocolate milk. The shed was gone. Yet it was all very tranquil and civilized.

"Here," said Zell and as they neared what was left of the structure, the sound of creaking wood and falling stone and shattering glass could be heard. With it came the sound of swearing. Zell took Xu's empty hand and all but pulled her around the only corner of the house. "Hey, man," he announced his presence loudly.

Seifer was standing on a ladder with only three remaining steps. He was tearing off pieces from the collapsed roof. They fanned the dirt at the base of the ladder. There was a dead raccoon amongst them.

When Seifer saw his visitors he ceased moving for a second. His expression was unreadable. He was deliberating his own sanity but as no one but him knew that, Xu interpreted it as hatred and Zell as annoyance.

"Well holy shit," Seifer finally spoke. His eyes were on Xu. He hadn't seen a live woman, except for Fujin, since the trials.

Xu stood transfixed. Zell released her hand and nudged her with his elbow instead. "Told you he's alive," he said to her and then extended his freed hand out to Seifer, who jumped down from his one-time ladder. They shook hands the way old army buddies do.

"Is Squall dead?" Seifer asked hopefully, knowing there was no need for false pleasantries.

"Who knows, possibly," was Zell's nonchalant answer.

"Excellent."

Then there was a silence and everybody found a place to sit.

"I went to Balamb when the storm broke," finally said Seifer. "It's under water. All of it is under water." He was addressing Zell solely and not mincing words or wasting time in delivering the news. "Only one vessel left the harbor afterwards. That's all I know. The rest is a floating graveyard." He made the gesture for the reconnaissance signal for a river with no bridge. He knew it although he failed most exams.

Zell rose without a sound and turned away from the triangle he was previously a point in. He walked away over the craters, to where the chocolate milk lake was and sat down at its edge, facing away with his head between his knees and his hands in his hair. Xu stood up, intent on following, but Seifer checked her. This was none of her business.

"But I should do something," she started and threw her shoe on the ground out of frustration.

"In that case, feel free to suck me off," was the answer.

She glared at her companion. Seifer no longer looked like the Sorceress' Knight or a SeeD for that matter. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt and jeans, both a little worse for wear but relatively clean and presentable. He had his old black gloves on, now white with drywall dust. If it wasn't for his tell-tale scar he could have passed for anyone. Anyone, however, would not be so interested in who was dead as he was. Although he had barely spoken to Xu during his time at the Garden, he had started adamantly quizzing her soon after the initial awkwardness passed.

"Is Cid dead?" he asked.

"Maybe," she answered.

"Is Quistis dead?"

"She's on a mission."

"Is the Doctor dead?"

"Maybe."

"The rest?"

"Maybe."

"I bet Rinoa is alive, nothing gets to that one," he laughed. "But I bet that dog of hers is dead."

"In all probability."

"No big loss on all counts."

"Don't be such a jerk."

"Hey," he looked her in the eye. "I couldn't help by notice your palms aren't callused. Did you bury any of your students, instructor, or did you simply pick their pockets?" He pointed to her partially-open backpack, currently resting between her feet, and all manner of junk and food in it. "Who are you to judge me?"

Xu looked down, at the junk and food. She did not reply nor did she protest when Seifer rose and joined Zell at the waterfront. She watched the two men's backs and wondered what they were talking about. She forgot to recall the war, the battles and the traversing Garden, the deaths and the absurdity of it all. She felt excluded.

At the shore there were no words passed for some time.

Zell wiped his eyes for the last time and, having gotten himself under control, said, "Thank you."

"No problem."

"Thank you, still."

"I never saw her, so you know. I waded in as far as I could, but I'm no strong swimmer and it was black besides. The water was up to the second floor, the stairs collapsed .."

Zell turned so they were facing each other. "You did more for Ma anyone else did. You don't know how much this means to me, man."

"No problem." Seifer took a deep breath, closing his eyes and the topic with them.

Zell was examining his surroundings now; the decrepit house, the water and the soup of ice and dirt. "How'd you get through this?" he gestured to the landscape.

Seifer opened his eyes and looked to the shed which was no longer there. "There's a well in the shack," he said. He took off his dusty gloves with his teeth. His palms were red with clotting blood, the skin torn off and raw meat exposed. "Hung in there a while."


	5. Maroon

The remainder of the day passed as a normal day could have passed. Seifer concluded the demolition of his caved-in roof and, as his guests assisted, was quite pleased with the progress that had been made. By total blackness, the house – its three walls standing proud – was again safe and very much inhabitable. There was a cot that had survived the storm and dried well and was presently offered to the lone female member of the small party. There was also a chest of drawers which, although quite crushed, protected its contents. So great things were expected and so was a higher degree of normality.

All of this was not much of a consolidation to Xu, however. Seifer was 6'2" and the smallest of his shirts fit her like a dress. She was a little girl playing dress-up once more. But it was worse for some Others, somewhere.

"'Morrow I'm going to the Garden. You know my locker's still there? I've been on enough missions for it to amount to something other than grades – eh, instructor? – and nonsensical crap. I was in that raid party .." Seifer trailed off and laughed under his breath.

"Troublemaker," muttered Xu.

"He's alright," interjected Zell. "I bet you a Guardian Force and a half the locker's full of porn." Then something dawned on him and he opened his eyes although there was nothing to be seen. "Is this the same crap you begged me to get for you before?" He emphasized the word 'begged' unintentionally.

Seifer ignored the slight. "One and only." Then, thoughtfully, "Tomorrow we get down to business. We have to arm ourselves properly. No more nice-fuck bullshit, fucking eating potato-chips here like a bunch of squatter rats. Zell," he was looking at the martial-artist although he could not see him, "When this is over –" he stopped abruptly.

Zell locked his hands behind his head and tried to find a star in the tarp of a sky. "When this is over, what?" he asked sleepily.

"Nothing. I'll tell you later."

Xu made a noise with her nose. "I'm not even listening," she said haughtily. Then she rolled over and, in a normal voice, added. "Do you think this has something to do with Cid?"

"What about Cid?" Zell's voice answered her.

"I just hear things .. I don't know." She yawned. "Doesn't matter."

"Go to sleep," ordered Seifer. As an afterthought, he added, "He should've had me lynched when he had the chance."

"Yeah, get some rest, tomorrow we'll see Hell," Zell said bitterly.

"It's worth it. You'll see," Seifer answered him, speaking lightly although there was nothing to be happy about and he knew that as well as he did the pain in his hands and the infection that would infest the bloodied mess of his palms if old medicine, the kind that existed before the magic, was found. He remembered it well. They used it still at prisons. "When I open up the cache and you shit all over your stolen tampons, then we'll see who was right."

"Idiot," mumbled Xu and turned over on her cot. "You can't shit on a tampon."

The men respected her authority on this matter and as there was nothing more to say regardless, silence resumed.

The morning was hot and humid and as unappealing as possible. If a single dog was still alive, it could be said that this particular morning was unfit even for it. All dogs were dead, however. That's just how it was.

The threesome, upon waking, concluded their supper of chips, soda, and candy-bars at breakfast. Fresh water was brought up from the well and a small flask that was found was filled with it.

"I only have one shoe," announced Xu as she looked through the items in the house. She flipped over all the fallen drywall. Some sheets had dead insects on them. There was broken glass beneath a lot of it so she stopped. She was exchanging determination for disappointment when a pair of worn, leather ankle-boots, small and in a ladies' cut, were dangled in front of her face. She accepted them, stared at them and then at her benefactor, and opened her mouth to speak.

"Save it," Seifer stopped her. "They were Fujin's. Not like she'll need them again." He knew she was dead without knowing.

Xu was only familiar with Fujin by name and reputation. The boots were a little loose, but fit regardless and were comfortable when walked in. She felt different in them, as if her body had been replaced with that of another. She was Fujin in a way. She wore a shirt and boots that were not her own. She wondered how often Fujin wore that same outfit and shuddered. She was glad she kept her skirt on and it was hers.

When Zell saw Xu he politely looked down as not to laugh.

"I know how it looks," she told him.

"If you ditch the shirt it'll look better," responded Zell a little too quickly and, having realized what he had said, apologized.

"You're not as innocent as everyone thinks," she threw back in a catty tone.

"Yeah," he scoffed, "I'm not a complete flake. Surprise."

"Ah, Hyne," Xu exhaled.

"Get going," Seifer interrupted the angst. He had on his old trench-coat. He rested his freshly-cleaned gunblade on his shoulder as he had done in the old days. It didn't matter that there were craters all around them and that nearby stood a house with only three walls and no roof. It didn't matter that there were catacombs full of SeeDs who lived and died for nothing in particular where the Garden once was. But with Seifer standing there, looking down at his companions with that same commanding gaze, just like he had done before the War and the Sorceress and Death and Hell, before all those entities combined into one cluster-fuck of Reality, it seemed better in a way. Somehow, in some way, that one moment when both Xu and Zell looked up and their breath caught in their throats, everything seemed better.

Note from the author: I can't update that often because I'm real busy with work (and school soon) and because I'm trying to think of an interesting plot rather than just rush through it. This story won't be about a slashy romance in the traditional sense ….. If the word "traditional" can be applied to something of a "slashy" nature. I'm not a romance writer as you can see if you look at my work at Fictionpress. But I'd like to make this a good fanfic regardless. I don't know how long this particular story will be because, although I have a basic plot outline in my head, I don't know how long it will take me to execute the telling of this tale. It may be quite long. I appreciate your reviews and look for them every day. I hope to gather a lot of them. Even if they're negative, please feel free to submit them – I am not one of those people who deletes bad reviews (I hate those people). Thank you for reading my work. Peace.


	6. Gunmetal Black

"I'm glad I fucked Rinoa before that sap got a go at her. No matter what happened, he had my sloppy seconds. Second-hand pussy .. Makes my day a little better each time I think about it. You should see this slut, the shit she would do," Seifer was speaking solely to Zell, who, not yet heard much of Rinoa's history in this light, appeared completely enthralled by it.

Xu tuned them out as Rinoa's anatomy was deconstructed in crude detail. "Shut the fuck up," she checked her companions after some time. They reached the ruins of the Balamb Garden with the air of mutual hostility.

Far from the trio, on another battered slab of land, fifty foot waves smashed against the rock cliffs that were once Tears' Point in the Abadan Plains. This is where the first stones of hail were cast. This is where the first man, woman, child, and animal fell. Above the waves and rocks and nothingness stood a gaggle of survivors. They were throwing bodies into the waves. They were stripping them first, to economize. One of them, a young boy with short, dark hair, was wielding a sledgehammer. He was crushing the faces so they, should they wash ashore, would be unidentifiable. No one needed more memories. No one wanted them. The boy was sweating and cursing profusely – the sledgehammer weighed nearly as his slim form did. He kicked a body he once knew – two rings dangling against its pale chest -- into the waves and watched it disappear. He wiped his forehead with a bloody hand. Around his neck hung a silver pendant; a lion on a cross.

Back in the land of the living nothing was known about the Plains or the funerals. No funerals were to take there yet. Seifer, Zell, and Xu walked into Balamb Garden unhindered. They paid the corpses no notice.

Seifer did not remember the Garden too well and it was some time before he could orient himself. In his thoughts, over the trials and the solitary months, he thought about it often. But his memories were becoming corrupted and the Garden of his mind was no longer the Garden of reality. But then the Garden of reality was no longer the Garden of anyone's mind. Somehow, it all fit.

The locker was not a locker but a barracks box. A large one, big enough to fit a small vehicle; a motorbike maybe. It was once used for imagery equipment and was metal, with large iron loops through which bars could be inserted for mobility-sakes. It had a biometric lock. It was not magic.

"This better be good," warned Zell and stood aside. He had helped Seifer clear the rubble off the container and now, his body sporting many cuts and scratches, was getting both anxious and annoyed. Waiting was not his forte.

"It's good, it's good," promised Seifer and took off his glove. Xu, who stood nearby, winced as she saw his palm. She had not seen it yet.

This was an exciting moment, under the circumstances. The lid opened. "I didn't steal any of this," Seifer said before touching anything inside. "So you know." It was covered with a crushed military tarp – a shelter half. The tarp was dusty but dry. Underneath the tarp all was still, gleaming with mystery. Seifer removed the covering and threw it aside. Beneath it was military equipment, the old kind, the kind that worked without magics and needed no draw sources or GFs.

Seifer picked up each handgun, rifle and grenade in silence and set it aside carefully, as if it was a newborn kitten, although there were no newborn kittens anymore. On the bottom, carefully arranged, was a black, metal cube.

"This," Seifer picked it up. He held it up to his face as to examine it better, "Is a Time Decompressor. If Ultimecia actually got her shit in order and succeeded, I'd go back." He laughed and looked Xu in the eye. "With this, I can go back and fuck Quistis up the ass in the Fire Cavern with no consequences save for a sore dick for fucking such a tightass."

Xu laughed although it was inappropriate for her to do so but then Zell interrupted:

"So the storm can happen all over, so what?"

"No," Seifer responded. He flicked something on the cube and the top of it opened. It was just a metal box, spray-painted black. "It splits the timeline. You go back far enough, you can change anything."

"Not here, in the other timeline. My ma still has to fucking drown alone in her house." Zell's voice was like the ice that had shattered the planet only days prior. "You've wasted our time, Seifer."

Xu was staring at the box. She was beginning to understand.

"No, I told you," Seifer took out a black joystick-like tool from the container. Through the side of it a purple liquid glowed and changed to a deep blue. It was not magic, only chemistry and a trick of the light. Seifer lightly brushed the rows of buttons on the joystick's side with his finger. "This isn't a miracle. It's a key to our survival, if need-be." He didn't say 'my'. He thought himself right but he was wrong. He himself was the only time key to their survival.

He took off his jacket and t-shirt and Xu was surprised to see that the cross that adorned his sleeves was tattooed on his back, its points spreading over his wide shoulder blades like wings. Zell had seen it already.

"Look all you want, instructor," Seifer winked at Xu. He made her curiosity seem perverted even to her.

Inside the locker were rolls of green gun tape. Seifer picked one up. "I die, you die," he spoke prophetic words to Xu without realizing the truth in them. Zell didn't need a warning – he would not waver. Seifer taped the weapon to his chest, over his heart. He slipped his nauseating, yellow t-shirt on and a bulletproof vest – worn and used – over it. It had come from the Galabadian army. "But should I croak and it's still intact, you take it. I'll brief you later."

Zell nodded. Xu pursed her lips and, insulted, said nothing. She picked up a rifle instead. A rusted magazine was in it. She liked its weight.

She unloaded the rifle and ran through the safety procedure; cocking it twice, engaging the bolt catch, inspecting the chamber. She stuck her pinkie in the little bed where the round would lay. There was carbon in it. "It needs a cleaning," she said to no one in particular as no one was listening. She looked at her finger again, frowned, released the bolt catch, pressed the trigger, closed the ejection port, and reloaded with a new magazine. As a good SeeD, she knew the drills. Later this year she would have taught them but now her students were dead and she had no one to teach anything to. She did not signify to her companions and she knew it well.

They took from the cache everything that was of value.

"Are there any all-terrains left?" asked Seifer, pointing at where the garage once stood.

"It's a tomb down there," Zell shook his head in a way that made his bangs dance. "There's nothing." He adjusted the body armor and tack-vest he wore. On his hip hung a large knife, the kind hunters carry. When they were kids Seifer threatened him with it, he recalled. It was only three years ago, in reality, but it felt like a decade.

On the other side of the world the strange boy stripped and kicked the last body off the cliff. The rocks below were red and white for a moment from where the split heads landed upon them. And then the waves would claim the victims and it was all calm and clear again.

The boy turned around with a determined look. "Hey boss, give me my rations or you do the next batch yous'self!" he called to a group of scraggly men gathered around a boiling pot with chunks of meat floating in it. No one asked what the meat was – they only knew it was meat. The boy joined the men, spitting out the blood that had seeped into his mouth along with the sweat. His face was once delicate and that delicacy still shone through, although dimmed severely. He took the bowl that was given to him. The men let him sit without hassle.

"Too bad there's no gin, aye?" said the boy and began eating his supper, more satisfied with himself than he has ever been in his previous life.

Note from the author: I'm sorry this update took so long. I'm working crazy hours … Just to give you a sample, this Friday I worked 8am to midnight, then Saturday 8:30 am to 8:30pm ….. It goes on like that pretty much with school in there as well. I will try to update more regularly as my schedule stabilizes and I hope you stay with my story and keep reading. Thank you all.


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